Chapter 9 Flashcards
What are the steps in the water cycle?
Evaporation into atmosphere, condensation into cloud droplets, precipitation as rain,snow, hail, etc. and evaporation again.
What is runoff?
Water flowing downslope along Earth’s surface
What is groundwater?
Water that infiltrates earth’s surface
Tributary
Rivers that flows into another stream.
Watershed
All of the land area whose water drains into a given stream system
Largest watershed in North America
The watershed for the Mississippi River
Divide
High land area that separates one watershed from another
Suspension
Method of transport for all particles small enough to be held up by the turbulence of a stream’s moving water
Bed load
Sediment too large or heavy to be suspended by the current but light enough to be pushed and pulled along bottom by current
How do most of the minerals get into streams?
Groundwater
Carrying capacity of a stream
Ability of a stream to transport material. Impacted most by volume of water in the stream, the velocity, slope, depth of the water and width.
Discharge
Measure of the volume of stream water that flows past a certain point, cubic centimeters/second
Floodplain
Broad, flat area extending out from a stream’s bank and is covered by excess water during floods
Stream channel
Moving water that carves a narrow pathway into the sediment or rock
Stream banks
Hold the moving water within them from the stream channel
